Cree GmbH to Build First Unencapsulated Energy-Efficient, Timber-Hybrid Building

The first unencapsulated eight-story timber building will rise in Dornbirn, Austria, as Cree GmbH announces the groundbreaking ceremony for the world’s first LifeCycle Tower, LCT ONE, in September 2011.

The first unencapsulated eight-story timber building will rise in Dornbirn, Austria, as Cree GmbH announces the groundbreaking ceremony for the world’s first LifeCycle Tower, LCT ONE, in September 2011. The Rhomberg Group chose the name of the subsidiary to ultimately reflect the envisioned research project that was born in 2009. Creative Resource & Energy Efficiency, Cree, are out to demonstrate the feasibility of the sustainable urban design project and to present the advantages of their building concept: resource and energy efficiency, 90 percent improvement in carbon-dioxide emissions and 50 percent reduction in construction time.

The timber-hybrid building will stand out compared to other projects through the loadbearing elements which are not lined. The unencapsulated timber structure offers a hands-on experience of wood as a construction material for the interior and preserves resources.

LCT ONE will be an office tower that will offer great flexibility in usage. Because the building has no loadbearing partition walls, each tenant can design the office space according to their unique requirements. The individual rentable areas vary from 538 to 17,222 square feet.

The 26,909-square-foot building, designed by Hermann Kaufmann, will have facades constructed from recycled composite metal and visible wooden supporting structure inside. The heating/cooling panels will be incorporated in the ceilings and the window contacts will prevent energy loss.

Located at Rhomberg’s factory in Dornbirn, the tower has optimum connections to public transport and has great traffic links to Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The prototype development is supported by the Austrian Research Grant Agency and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology.